Americans are moving closer to climate risk. This is why
Individuals and businesses have been willing to ignore the longer-term financial and human risk of extreme weather in favour of the short-term gains that come from low taxes and property prices.
Last week, as Hurricane Milton was barrelling towards the west coast of Florida, one well-known television meteorologist covering the storm was brought to tears during a broadcast. “I apologise – this is just horrific,” he said, choking up.
It was made more so by the fact that Hurricane Helene had only just ripped through Florida and the Carolinas, killing at least 225 people and destroying not just coastal areas, but mountain towns such as Asheville, a community some 800 kilometres from where the storm made landfall. YouTube videos of the floods in that city showed buildings floating down raging rivers.
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Financial Times
Rana Foroohar is a global business columnist and an associate editor at the Financial Times, based in New York. She is also CNN’s global economic analyst.
